3Ad
3 JUNE 1991
E OE PROOF ONLY
PM: I have a Caucus meeting at 11.30. That will set the
duration of this meeting. I'll make a brief statement, it
is to this effect. Firstly, I am grateful to my Caucus
colleagues for the significant vote of confidence that they
have given me. The second thing is to thank Paul Keating
for the tremendous service he's given to this country as
Treasurer and providing me with what I've said has been, I
think, one of the outstanding combinations in post-war
politics. It goes without saying that. I am sad to see the
end of that combination but the course of events has made
that necessary. Paul accepted the decision graciously,
congratulated me and indicated there would be no further
challenge from him. The task now, as I told the Caucus, is
to set about the task of healing the wounds which
undoubtedly have occurred in my Party during this process.
I believe that that is the wish of the overwhelming
majority, not: merely of my Parliamentary colleagues, it is
certainly the view of the Party at large and I expect it
would be the wish of the community in general. They would
want us to put this behind us so that we can get on
concentrating on the task of running this country. The
Labor Party will now be able to focus on its true opponents
those are the Liberal and the National Party Coalition
who I believe provide a disastrous prescription for the
future of this country and I am determined to do everything
within my capacity to lead my Party to victory in 1993. So
that's where we are. I simply say finally that I had made
up my mind before this ballot that I thought I should cancel
my proposed overseas visit and I have so made that decision.
It is a pity that I can't go ahead with it because there
were important meetings with European leaders in regard to
the question of the Uruguay Round. I will have to see how
those things can be covered whether by correspondence or in
some other ways. But I believe and I think the Australian
people would accept that the appropriate course of action
for me is to stay here now and, as I say, get on with this
task of reuniting the Party and providing Australia with the
Government that they require.
JOURNALIST: inaudible
PM: Should he?
JOURNALIST: inaudible
PM: No that's a question for Paul. He has made the
decision which obviously he had to make in terms of the
position of Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministry. That
was the only decision he could make. What he does about
staying in or leaving the Parliament's for him and I'm
certainly not seeking his departure.
JOURNALIST: inaudible
PM: Well all I can say is that if I look back on the Press
for the last few days you people set the parameters, you
said I need 20, well I got 22. So I am confident that the
Party knows what the right approach is and I accept what
Paul says that he will not be making a challenge, nor do I
think he'd be encouraging any acts along those lines.
JOURNALIST: Who will be the new Treasurer?
PM: I am the Treasurer. I've just done that. It's
something I hadn't anticipated was necessary. That
interests you doesn't it. I thought I could appoint an
acting one but I can't because when there is no Treasurer
there can't be someone acting for someone who doesn't exist.
It came as a great surprise to me so I am Treasurer for the
day. I trust I get some decent Balance of Payments figures.
JOURNALIST: Do you want Mr Howe to be your Deputy?
PM: I beg your pardon.
JOURNALIST: Do you want Mr Howe as your Deputy?
PM: I think that will be the outcome and I think he'll make
a great Deputy.
JOURNALIST: Will there be a Cabinet reshuffle?
PM: Well by definition there has to be some. I don't think
there needs to be much. I make it clear about the Treasury.
I have no ambitions or intentions to hold a duality of
portfolios. Prime Minister's enough.
JOURNALIST: When do you think..
PM: It'll be fairly quickly, Michelle, fairly quickly.
JOURNALIST: going stay now until the next election.
What are your plans after that?
PM: I beg your pardon.
JOURNALIST: stay now until the next election. What are
your plans after that?
PM: I have to win it and fight on. Now we'll come to that.
Now I'm going to be fighting this election in 1993. Now
what I'll be saying about that that's down the
JOURNALIST: why you reneged on your promise to leave at
a time which would give Paul Keating reasonable time to take
over? PM: This is not something that gives me great pleasure but
it's going have to be dealt with here and I guess in the
Parliament. Let me say this very briefly and as
unabrasively ass I can. The situation arose in 1988, the
meeting, because Paul believed we couldn't win the iggo
election and he thought he should have a turn as Prime
Minister. It's understandable. But I believed that we
could win the 1990 election and I said so and I intended to
fight it and .1 thought I was the best to win it. Paul had
some view that perhaps he might leave if he was not Prime
Minister. I didn't want him to leave and so reluctantly,
but nevertheless I did it reluctantly in those circumstances
of keeping him on because I thought it was best that he stay
on. I said that if we won, as I believed we would, then I
would retire during the fourth term. Those were the
circumstances. I must say in all this one of the
unfortunate things has been the misrepresentations that have
taken place about that meeting. There are some who know the
truth and I'm talking about the media as well who up until
last night refused to accept it and perpetrated an untruth.
The fact is that that meeting was the initiative of Bill
Kelty and the people at it were the initiative of Bill
Kelty. That's by the way, it's an incidental. So I gave
that undertaking for those reasons. It was because Paul
thought he should have his turn back there in the last
period of government in a situation where he thought we
couldn't win -the next one. Now I don't want to go over the
unpleasant episodes of the end of 1990, the beginning of
this year because despite all this, as I've said privately
to Paul, I do have respect and I hope I'll still be able to
have friendship with him. So I only go to these things to
the extent that it's necessary to answer obvious questions
that are in your minds and in the minds of the people. What
did happen at the end of 1990 and the first part of ' 91 I
couldn't accept and on that basis I said that that
undertaking was off and I did this within the context that I
believed then as I do now profoundly that I am the person
best placed to lead the Labor Party to victory in 1993.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke when you told the Australian
people that you would stay a full term in your mind at
that stage hadl you decided you wouldn't honour the agreement
with Mr Keating
PM: No I hadn't. No, I intended to honour it and
JOURNALIST: So you were misleading the Australian people at
that stage?
PM: Well we've covered that. Let me say I harboured some
hope that Paul may come to see that that would be the best
outcome, that I should go on. I did harbour that hope and I
regretted, I regretted having to say what I did. The facts
are you know the truth and the reality of this that as did
the people at the meeting that if I'd gone to the electorate
in 1990 saying that I was only going to serve part of the
term and they were voting for Paul Keating we would not have
won the election. That was accepted. As I say I am
reluctant to have to handle it the way I did, it was not of
my making, it occurred for the reasons that I've put, I
didn't like having to do what I did. As I say, I harboured
the hope that Paul may come to see if things didn't change
that it would be best that I go on. Let me say this, if I
had believed at any stage during the term of this Government
that Paul, or anyone else for that matter, had a better
chance of leading the Labor Party to victory I wouldn't have
needed anyone coming to knock on my door. I've been Prime
Minister for a long period of time. It would be very much
personally easier for me to retire. I certainly could
honourably make more money outside of Parliament than I do
in it. I have a wife and three children and six
grandchildren whom I adore, and I would comfortably spend
very much more time with them. The only reason that I stay
is because I believe that I have the best chance of leading
this Party to victory. And interestingly, as you would
observe, although some of your editors didn't seem to want
to give it the prominence that it deserved, the facts
weren't there, overwhelmingly all the evidence of recent
days is that that's a view which is shared both by my Party
and by the people of Australia.
JOURNALIST: said isn't that that you told a lie in
order to win the
PM: Paul, the number of times I mean and you'll
keep on writing that. I've explained
JOURNALIST: But do you concede that point?
PM: Paul, you've heard my explanation. I told you
JOURNALIST: Would you concede that point?
PM: I have given you my explanation. Look you will do the
interpretation Paul. You will do the interpretation. Let
me repeat, I have said that I made a commitment to Paul at
that meeting for the reasons that I said. I regret that I
have to, in those circumstances in the election, to have
said what was not the case. That is that I would serve a
full term. I had the hope that if the situation didn't
change in terms of the perceptions of Paul's capacity to
win, that he may come to understand that it wasn't in the
best interests of the Party but I had given him that
commitment. You will have noticed that at no point since
that discussion has been revealed have I avoided that
point. So it is the case that what I was saying to the
electorate did not represent the understanding I had with
him. But as I say, I harboured the hope that if things went
on and it remained abundantly clear that I was the best
chance for the Party's success in the next election then he
would come to understand that. He didn't come to that view.
But as I say, in the event the circumstances at the end of
1990, beginning of ' 91 made me believe that I no longer was
in a position where I should adhere to that undertaking.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, do you think you owe the Australian
people some apology for
PM: All I can say, Michelle, about your perception of what
you think I owe the Australian people or do not owe, I'd
simply suggest: that this issue has been overwhelmingly
before the Australian people in the last few days. It could
hardly be said that it's been kept a secret from them.
JOURNALIST: I~ t was for a few years.
PM: Just a minute. I wonder whether I could finish
JOURNALIST: inaudible.
PM: I wonder whether I could finish the answer I'm giving.
Do you mind? Thank you very much. So kind of you. I
suggest that there was no way that in the last few days the
Australian people could be having the view that they didn't
know the issuets. You've elaborately put them all before
them and in their knowledge and, may I say, not only in
their knowledge but in my Party members' knowledge of all
the events, they are making their view clear as to what
their preferences are. So as I have been throughout my
public career, which is now over 30 years on, I will be
content to go before the Australian people, you won't find
me dodging the Australian people. I will, as I've done in
the past, more than any other Prime Minister in the history
of this country go in to meet the Australian people in their
workplaces, in their shopping places, where they assemble, I
will meet them directly and with the confidence that I have
in the past and I believe that they will continue to show in
the future the respect for me and the confidence that they
have in the past.
JOURNALIST: in the Left faction.
PM: I beg your pardon.
JOURNALIST: This must certainly mean that they'll have more
influence in economic policy along the lines of the
submissions put to you
PM: it doesn't mean anything of the sort. What's very
interesting that you should note if you really understood
what's been happening in this Parliament and in this
Government over a period of time is that the Left have
become a more significant contributor not just to economic
policy but to policy generally than they were in the early
days. There wras almost a sense in the early days of some
confrontationism but I think very largely due to the way I
conduct affairs the Left has come to understand that this is
a reformist Government with which they are proud to identify
and they have made a very significant contribution. I
brought Brian Howe into the ERC some time back, many years
back, they say Paul didn't agree with it at the time he
came to and the Left have come to make a positive and
constructive contribution. It's not as though they're
coming out of the cold. They have been constructive. The
way this Government has operated for some period of time now
is that the factions, they have their differences on things,
but basically we come to consensus positions. I think that
will continue. one more question, one more, one more
question. Yes.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, doesn't it concern you at all that
you're at least going to be perceived as having deceived the
Australian public up to a few days ago?
PM: Well thanks for the original question. I've really
answered it.
JOURNALIST: But isn't the heart of the issue?
PM: I don't know whether you know the rules. We don't have
a debate here. You ask a question, I give an answer.
Right, you've asked your question, now I'll give you the
answer. Good. You understand the rules.
JOURNALIST: inaudible.
PM: Wait a minute. You would know the rules. I'm giving
him his answer. Let me give it to him. Now the fact is, as
I've said, the Australian people have been inundated, if I
may say, not all too objectively by some, but the public
have been given a full exposition, in many cases a totally
misleading exposition about the 1988 meeting, untruths have
been told about that but by now they are well and truly
exposed. Now the people have been fed all the information
including my commitment in 1988 and they are making their
Judgements clear and their reactions now and most
importantly my Party is. And as I said I have no fear
whatsoever about going out and meeting the Australian
people. I love meeting them. I will continue to do it. I
have no apprehension whatsoever. Ok. I've got a meeting.
ends